I am Martin, one of the organizers for the Bay Area Bisexual Network's SF Pride Contingent, and I wanted to invite you, your organizations and Bay Area LGBT Centers to spread the word that we are having a contingent in the SF Pride Parade for the entire bi/pan+ community. The Generations of Resistance to Bi+ Erasure - 2019 SF Pride March will be for all of us, whether you are bi, pan, queer, fluid, omni or another non-monosexual identity, let's bring visibility to our Bi/Pan+ groups through a large contingent representing the vast bi+ community.

First, we strongly suggest that every person who marches with the bi/pan+ contingent watch the video for contingent monitors and then take the quiz associated with our contingent(BA9118). Participants will be asked to select a Contingent Training Code from a drop-down menu and to enter their contact information that will then be forwarded to our organizing team. We will be unable to march if we do not get at least eight (8) contingent monitors and will not step off with a vehicle unless there are at least four identified wheel monitors checked in with the lead organizer on site by 9:30 AM PST.

Secondly, we are asking that all groups representing community will follow our code of conduct which touches on consent, public behavior, smoking, discrimination/respecting differences, gender, sexuality, culture & race, confidentiality and getting help both in the lead upto and during the parade.

###

Code of Conduct for the SF Pride Bi/Pan+ Contingent: The organizers will try to deal fairly and respectfully with any issue brought to us. We may also make reasonable requests that are not specifically included here.

Please remember that everyone is at a different stage of awareness about various issues, and don’t assume people are being malicious.If you are able, please consider kindly educating people when they make mistakes – this includes everyone, even the organizing team!People are responsible for themselves, their actions, and their own health. Be aware of your physical health and well-being: hydrate often and make a mental note of any nearby restroom facilities and extra bring sunscreen if possible.

ConsentConsent is crucial to us all participating fully, it is important the no one in the SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent should be put under any pressure to join in with things they do not want to do. This includes but is not limited to:

• hugs or touching• taking part in an activity• disclosing information• any sexual behavior• discussing topics which are sensitive or personal• or even having a chat.

Ask every time. Don’t assume that because someone said “yes” earlier that they will still say “yes” the next time.

It is fine to ask someone once if they would like to do something. For example, “Would you like a hug?” If they refuse, continuing to ask is pestering them and will be viewed as harassment and reported to SF Pride's security.

If someone asks you to leave them alone, do so. You can also ask the organizers to tell someone to leave you alone.In public, “no”, “stop”, “don’t do that” or similar words and phrases will be taken at face value by the SF Pride organizers and volunteers, regardless of context.

Public BehaviorOur SF Pride contingent should be a place where people feel free to express their sexuality, but it is not a sex or fetish play party. We ask that overtly sexual behavior be kept out of the parade and rout down Market Street. Please keep public behavior within what is normally publicly acceptable at a Pride parade.

Our SF Pride contingent attendees should remained fully clothed in all public areas, except for when breastfeeding. All nipples, genitalia and bums must be securely covered by clothing.

Everyone on the parade rout deserves to feel safe and no one deserves to be shouted at, sworn at, or made to feel threatened.

SmokingPlease do not smoke either regular or e-cigarettes anywhere on either the rout or the staging area, as vapors from these devices can be triggering for people with asthma and related conditions.

Discrimination and Respecting DifferencesOur SF Pride contingent should be a safe space for all attendees, regardless of ethnicity, class, gender, disability, religion, spiritual belief, age, or lifestyle. Bigoted behavior of any kind will not be tolerated and you may be ejected from our group at any time along the rout by the SF Pride security team including our contingent monitors.

Don’t make negative assumptions or stereotype people on the basis of their skin color, physical features, race, accent or religious belief. Do not make negative comments about people based on the characteristics outlined above.

GenderPeople who attend our SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent may define their gender in a range of different ways, which we understand aren’t always easy to spot. If you are unsure of the pronoun someone uses, we encourage you to ask them, or avoid gendered language by using “they” instead of “he” or “she”.

Once you have been informed of someone’s gender pronouns, whether by asking them or being corrected, please try to use these pronouns correctly.

We accept people’s self-identified gender for all purposes.

SexualityPeople are welcome to attend our SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent regardless of how they define their sexuality. Do not criticize someone based on what label (or lack of) they use to define their sexuality.

Culture & RaceNegative comments about any aspect of a person’s culture or race should not be made.

Fetishization of cultural markers and physical features should be avoided. An example of fetishization of cultural markers could be, “that’s such an exotic name” or “your dreadlocks are amazing, can I touch them?”

ConfidentialityPlease respect people’s privacy, and be aware that not everyone in our SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent may be ‘out’ about their sexuality or other aspects of their lifestyle, such as BDSM or non-monogamy.Ask permission before identifying anyone publicly.

This includes in other conversations in our SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent or on social media relating to our SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent (e.g. the Facebook event). ‘Public’ also includes write-ups on personal websites or on social networking sites such as Facebook.

If you find yourself talking to someone you met in our SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent after the event has ended, be careful if you need to remind them where you met – you don’t know who else might be listening! Perhaps just remind them that the event was in SF.

Do not take any photographs or recordings of people without their express permission. It is your responsibility to make sure everyone in shot is happy to be photographed.

Also be aware that other people, outside of our consent filled contingent, will be taking pictures and video from the sidelines and the larger parade will be filmed and live streamed. If this makes you uncomfortable, please feel free to attend any other event around pride week in lieu of the parade.

If you give permission for your photo to be taken, please assume it may end up online, linked to you by name, as people may not remember your preferences after our SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent has disbanded.

Getting HelpIf you want support in challenging anyone’s behavior or anything they’ve said, please come and talk to the organizers who can assist you or speak to the person for you. We will be wearing contingent monitor stickers and the lead organizer will be wearing a black/rainbow SF Giants hat.The organizers very much want to know about things that make people in our SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent less likely to attend another bi+ event. If anything happens that makes you uncomfortable or unwelcome – even if you do not want us to do anything about it, or feel it is your fault – please let us know.

Breaches of the Code of ConductIf anything happens to you in the run-up to, including the step off and in our SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent that you feel is a breach of our Code of Conduct, or you have witnessed inappropriate behavior, we want to know so we can improve your experience.Additionally, we are always open to adding to the Code of Conduct, should you feel we have missed something.

You can talk to us:• in person: you can identify us by our name tags (and contingent monitor identifiers)• by text or phone: 415-845-1157 (main organizer)• by email: martin@sfbabn.org

Things we can do to help:If something has happened that makes you uncomfortable we can talk to anyone else involved. We are happy to do so even if you haven’t communicated this to them, since that is not always easy to do. We will listen to what you think would help, if you have any ideas.Examples of things we as a community can do:

• communicate to others that there is a problem• ask for an apology• ask them to leave you alone• require them to not be where you are• exclude them from the rest of our SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent by contacting the SF Pride parade security team

These will be implemented at the discretion of our SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent team.

If you mess up, acknowledge, apologize and learn from it. Practice saying, “Thank you for letting me know what I did and how it was inappropriate”. Strive to improve your behavior.

Breaches of this Code of Conduct or reasonable requests will, in most cases, be met with a warning from a member of the organizing team. If warnings are ignored, or in the event of serious misconduct, we reserve the right to ask anyone to leave all or part of our SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent. We reserve the right to pass on details of complaints to future SF Pride Bi/Pan+ contingent organizers.

Hello BABN! I’m Dr. Lindsey Brooks, a proud member of the bi+ community and a San Francisco psychologist.

Every day, I see and face biphobia like this, and I’ll bet you do, too:

Assumptions about your identity based on your partner’s gender (e.g. “You must be gay (or straight) because your partner’s gender is x”)

People denying bisexuality even exists, especially for bi+ men

Not being considered a “real” bisexual unless you’ve dated or had sex with people across the gender spectrum

Queer groups only focusing their efforts on the needs of L & G folks

Invisibility of bisexuals in everyday language and media representation

And while bisexuals have amazing levels of resilience--which you can read more about in The 5 Secret Strengths of Bisexuals--studies have shown that internalizing society’s biphobia, or having a partner who isn’t supportive of your bi+ identity, can take a toll on your mental health (Taylor et al., 2019).

We deal with some tough stuff as bisexuals, but the good news is that there are lots of proven, effective ways to cope with biphobia.

You can bolster your resilience and keep yourself on a positive path with your mental health. Here are just a few ideas to get you started. Remember, you don’t have to do them all at once, but maybe find one idea that’s a good fit for you.

Understand unhealthy thought patterns. Notice any common biphobic negative thought patterns you may have about yourself. Pay close attention, because they can sneak up on you when you’re not noticing.

You might think, “I’m not bi enough because…,” “I’m not a real bisexual because…,” or “My partner seems uncomfortable with my bisexual attractions, maybe there is something wrong about being bisexual.”

Try to pause these thoughts from taking you over by saying, “This is just biphobia talking, I don’t have to believe these thoughts.” Repeat over and over. You will probably have to do this many times for yourself until you get the hang of pausing these thoughts.

Change your self-talk. Once you’re more aware of your thought patterns, begin to use more positive self-talk to replace them. Try instead: “I can define bisexuality for myself,” “My identity is valid, not matter who I’ve dated or slept with,” and “I deserve a partner who supports my bisexuality.”

Make a gratitude list. Make a list of all the reasons you are grateful for being bisexual and the awesome strengths you have as a bisexual. Maybe even add the names of bisexual role models or fantastic bisexual people in your life. Look back at this list when you need to call upon your strength.

Build a bi-supportive community. Find bi-supportive friends and community you can lean on when things are hard. They can remind you that you are important, valid, and valued. They can share their similar experiences and remind you that you’re not alone. As a special bonus, the more bi-supportive friends you have, the more likely you are to find a bi-supportive partner.

Learn mindfulness skills. Learning these skills are great for anyone and everyone, but they are especially powerful for bisexual folks to help cultivate an internal sense of strength and well-being. To help you feel ready to go back out in the world after a particularly tough day, start small by practicing mindfulness just 3 minutes a day with a free app like Calm or Headspace. Increase the time as you feel ready.

Work on bi+ advocacy efforts. Helping to create systemic change can be empowering and help you feel in control. Think about small everyday ways you can advocate for the community. Think about big systemic changes and how you can help organize bite-size steps to make them happen. An important caveat here: when embarking on advocacy make sure to balance self-care with activism. While advocacy can be super-empowering, it can also lead to burnout if we don’t keep things in balance.

Pick just one of these simple tools to commit to doing regularly for yourself and see what a powerful impact it can have on your mental health. I see it be effective over and over again for my clients.

What are your go-to coping tools? How do you bolster your resilience? I’d love to hear people talking about this at our next BABN get-together!

The 5 Secret Strengths of Bisexuals

If you’ve read many articles or research on bisexuality and mental health, you’ve heard all about the “stresses” and “risk factors” for bi+ folks. But if you’re reading this article, it means that you’re connected with BABN, and you probably know from your own experience the strength and power of the bi+ community.

I know that strength and power, too. I’m Dr. Lindsey Brooks, a San Francisco psychologist and proud member of the bi+ community. In this and upcoming guest blogs for BABN, I’m excited to share the positive psychological aspects and strengths of our community for a change.

And yes, I promise, there are many.

For example, coming out as bisexual is shown by recent research to be associated with improved relationships, a feeling of living more authentically, and improved mental health (Brownfield et al., 2018).

I see this reflected in my own work with bi+ clients: The stronger you feel within your own identity, the more you can genuinely connect with others. This connection has powerful benefits for a sense of happiness and belonging. (It’s also important to note that not everyone has the privilege and safety to come out, and not sharing your identity may also be an equally important choice for your mental health.)

In my work with the bi+ community over the past decade, I have witnessed many strengths of the bi+ experience. Here are some of my favorite strengths of being bisexual, based on my experience with bi+ clients and supported by recent research (Scales et al., 2010).

Self-awareness. Recent research suggests that bisexuals make up more than half of the LGB community (Gates, 2011), but have less visibility than their LG counterparts in our culture and society. In the journey of becoming self-aware, it may take time and introspection to first understand that bisexuality even exists, much less understand your own bisexuality. Making sense of your attractions across the gender spectrum can take time. During this reflection time, you can gain more clarity not only on your sexuality, but on who you are as a person. What a wonderful bonus gift of a bisexual identity!

Strong sense of self. Being bisexual in a binary world often means dealing with people who invalidate, erase, or simply refuse to believe your identity. This can be very painful! And, it also gives you practice at reaffirming for yourself, over and over, that you know who you are. You learn to provide yourself that unconditional love and acceptance. Over time, this can build a powerful inner strength and sense of self-love.

Infinite capacity for empathy. The bi+ experience creates a great amount of space to empathize with a wide range of life experiences, including multiple marginalized groups from cultural, sexual, and gender diverse communities. Perhaps it’s the experience of relationships with people across the gender spectrum, or the experience of feeling “in between,” that allows for this empathy to grow. I find this deep empathy benefits bisexual folks both personally and professionally in so many ways.

Positioned to be an ally and advocate. As a bi+ person, you are more likely to move in and out of different community spaces. Perhaps you have queer, straight, and bi+ communities you move within. This gives you opportunity to be a bridge between these communities. You can speak up and advocate when you hear biphobia in the straight or gay community. You can speak up and advocate when you hear homophobia, transphobia, racism, or sexism in any community. As a trusted part of more than one community, your voice can carry weight and influence that others may not have access to.

Write your own script. There is no societal script for what it means to be bisexual. This gives you space to write your own script, and to create relationships and make life choices that work for you. This makes room to break gender expectations, explore what relationship boundaries work for you and your partner(s), and live by your values. You get to define your own life in a way that fosters creativity and joy!

What are your strengths as a bisexual person? I’d love to hear people talking about this at your next BABN get-together!

Join BABN and the Center for Sex and Culture for a frightful night of costumes and fun to benefit the bisexual community.

Ware your best bi+ costume and mingle with the giants of bisexuality in the largest sexuality library in the Bay Area. There will be historical prizes (t-shirts and pins) for the best costumes!

BAY AREA BISEXUAL NETWORK & THE CENTER FOR SEX AND CULTUREBay Area Bisexual Network's mission is to develop a healthy, vibrant, multicultural bisexual community in the San Francisco Bay Area and to promote a better understanding of bisexual lives and issues within the larger lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) community and the public.The Center for Sex & Culture, located in San Francisco at 1349 Mission St. between 9th and 10th, strives to promote creativity, information, and healthy sexual knowledge.

The 48th Annual SF LGBT Pride Parade and the week leading up to the big event was really a time to draw on the strength of our generations of bi+ pride. We have an SF Pride T-Shirt in a few more sizes and we will be putting up a page where you can donate $25 for one to be shipped to you in the coming month.

The Bi-BQ was a blast and you can see more photos of the Bi-BQ 2018-Bi New World which are uploaded to Our Town SF and also available on their Our Town Flickr page.

The SF Pride Parade had folks come from all over the Bay Area, our sister group, Bisexuals and Friends, at the Billy DeFrank Center in San Jose, the East Bay and even from as far as Sacramento. Thank you for making SF Pride spectacular and rolling with the sound equipment (quite literally for Rabbi Jeremy, who rolled the speaker cart!).

A huge thank you to the various players who helped to make the event happen this year: Anne Killpack, Kai MacTane, Kirsten Berry, Jen Davidson, Martin Rawlings-Fein, Amy Larson, Jeremy Sher & Nick Leonard without whom this event would not have happened!!!

Due to a need for intersectional anti-racism training of board members, we are working in partnership with BiNet USA's Faith Cheltenham and Juba Kalamka (former BABN Board Member) to bring diversity training to the leadership team. A Large part of choosing folks to help train board members is their acknowledgment of bisexuality as a valid sexuality and identity which many anti-racism groups still do not acknowledge in their literature or stance. Which is troubling to say the least. By engaging in anti-racism and pursuing our work in anti-racist ways we can engage in intersectionality both collectively and individually.

Continue BABN’s existence and life, and maintain or improve its health

We attempted to both advocate for our group and our leadership as Pride Grand Marshals this year. Kin Folkz, our former Co-Director, was nominated to the ballot and was elected a 2018 Pride Grand Marshal. Though Kin Folkz is no longer active as a leader with BABN, we look forward to seeing their contingent and now know that there will be at least two bi+ contingents in SF Pride this year, an improvement over last year. We will have a contingent and are actively looking for members to march with us with this year's theme, "Generations of Strength" (sign up to march with us here). Our spot is paid for out of the funds raised by Kirsten Berry, our past fundraiser and former driver. Kirsten was very proud of contributing her skills in driving, moderation and crowdfunding to the org during our rebuilding and we are also very proud of her work.

Get a Board together within one year

The current members of the organizing group are Allegra Hirschman (BiBQ), Amy Larsen (Chasing Amy), Jen Davidson, Moria Merriweather and Martin Rawlings-Fein. Faith Cheltenham (VP of BiNet USA) is applying to be a settled board member currently and we are so happy to have her on our team. We have a simple board application link for anyone who would like to join us in organizing our community.

Anne Killpack, Kai MacTane, Kin Folks, and Kirsten Berry have stepped down for various reasons but their service over the last few years with organizing our SF Pride contingents, managing our social media, creating bridges to East and South Bay communities and managing our "Holographic Board" is greatly appreciated and we hope that they have great success in all their future endeavors.

​Staff: We would need a larger budget to pay any staff and considered a stipend intern as of the last meeting. But having met only 30% of our fundraising goal we are unable to commit money to regular paid staff currently.

We are working on a new logo and looking for a designer who can establish a design aesthetic for our site and brand. In large part due to the work that Jen and Kirsten put into developing a request for proposal (RFP) in which we were able to articulate our needs. Have some other events, besides just Pride and establish a "nest egg"

Space Needs: We are renting room 203, the small room, for a Thursday night drop in group at the SF LGBT Center - $24 -$48 a month depending on the need. We are also working with the Bob Ross Senior Center at Openhouse, thanks to Lani Ka'ahumanu, to have a free intergenerational group. We need to recruit and train a social media specialist to fill in for Kirsten, our former social media admin, and to build up our Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube, and Instagram presence.

Growing the Bi-BQ and/or Bi Visibility Day events are at the top of our list this year and a large portion of our raised funds will go to securing items for the upcoming, Pride ($325) Bi-BQ (In-kind-people power) and further off Bi+ Visibility Week in September with a fun event, or events, that we can all enjoy. It is not just Pride this year :)

Thanks to Moria, BABN was represented at the Santa Clara County bi flag raising for celebrate bisexuality week, in September of 2017.

Increase social media presence and outreach

We started using our Twitter, Facebook pages regularly, standardized our Chat list group to align with our Facebook Chat group and many other social outreach tools using Kirsten's admin know how and social media skills.

Fix the website​​

Kai came up with a plan to modernize the page, possibly get our old url back and bring us to the 21st Century.

BABN is no longer doing brunches or helping boost signal for Bi Boys’ Happy Hour. All it does anymore is the yearly Pride contingent. Martin is running it on his own, as best he can.We need a Board, 501(c)(3) status, fundraisers, and bylaws.

Board: We had one back around 2003, but everyone got burned out. We have one current board application.

Non-Profit Status: We no longer have non-profit status through the BRC; they dropped us due to a recent change in the laws. We need to fill out a form and apply, which will cost $275-400.

Bylaws: We have a set we copied from FTM International, but we’d like to write our own.

Emergency Committee FormedAn Emergency Committee has been formed to look after BABN’s current and near-future health and survival. Members: Amy, Kai, Anne, Kirsten, and Martin.

Org Goals and Targets:

Continue BABN’s existence and life, and maintain or improve its health

Continue Pride at our current level (or greater)

Get a Board together within one year

Recruit and train staff to handle ongoing operations.

Have some other events, besides just Pride.

Increase social media presence and outreach

Fix the website

Form partnerships with other bi+ groups

Roles Filled at the Meeting

Amy volunteered to be Events Coordinator. She has lots of ideas for events and venues.

Anne can do social media stuff. Title still TBD, possibly Social Media Director or Officer.

Moria has already been complaining to organizations that leave out the B. Now she gets to do so on behalf of BABN, as the Complaints Officer or some similar title TBD.

Future PlansThe Emergency Committee will continue to coordinate via email. They will meet again in late August (in 4-6 weeks) to re-evaluate and adjust course as necessary.

The Bay Area Bisexual Network is celebrating 30 years as an active partner in the fight for queer equality. Founded in 1987, our mission is to develop a healthy, vibrant, multicultural bisexual community in the San Francisco Bay Area. We have a growing social media presence and have hosted events like the Bi-Trans Brunch and other Bi+ (Bi Plus) meetups. At Pride we will be showing our colors as we march down Market - pink, purple and blue, the colors of the Bi Pride Flag, representing the fluidity of our sexuality. It's Not Just A Phase!

When We Rise was difficult television for me to watch. I kept waiting for the next leader introduced to be Lani Ka'ahumanu who assisted in the founding of the San Francisco State Women Studies Department, she is also credited with the founding of BiPOL the first and oldest bisexual political organization. I kept watching hoping that perhapsDr. Harriet Leve and Dr.Maggi Rubensteinmight show up as the co-founder's of the San Francisco Bisexual Center on Hayes and Masonic, they could have been included as Maggi was also a co-founder of three major sex-education institutions in San Francisco: Glide Memorial Church's National Sex Forum, the San Francisco Sex Information Hotline, and the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.

Or Dr. David Lourea and Cynthia Slater who presented safer-sex education in bathhouses and BDSM clubs in San Francisco as well as David going on to push the DPH to recognize bisexual men in their official AIDS statistics which was a huge victory for data scientists everywhere.When that didn't happen and those leaders did not rate even a mention, I hoped that A. Billy S. Jones could have been thrown in as one of those organizers of the March On Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights and was sorely disappointed.

In the end of the miniseries none of that happened, I was only watching Gay, Lesbian and Transgender stories depicted. While Cleve Jones, the author of the memoir that was the basis of the miniseries stated about the criticisms, "Honestly, if just a fraction of the energy spent complaining went into WRITING, all these stories could be known. The people who feel left out should take responsibility to do that hard work." That is when I realized that while When We Rise did not tell our stories, the truth is that we have been telling our stories separately for years and being told to "shut up" because nobody in the gay community wants to hear them.

Our stories are not convenient, they do not fit into the boxes in which others try to place them. The idea of two women in a relationship that is not a lesbian one was too hard for marriage equality to handle, soLindasusan Ulrich and Emily Drennen were not used in the case against Prop 8 despite their 3 marriages to each other. During the national spotlight on “gay marriage” the couple were outspoken and protested the use of “gay marriage” in discourse. They even went so far as to create a document "Words Matter" and went to a Town Hall event for the Equality for All campaign (the coalition fighting Prop 8 in California) to present an action called "unVEILing injustice" to highlight our struggle against erasure. Just one story that could have illustrated the fight for equality even within our own queer community.

Despite Dustin Lance Black's assurances that there was bi+ representation in the miniseries, there were none that I was aware of either in reading his response or other tweets that he pointed me to on Twitter:

@FeinMentsch No problem. Tweets below have specifics. Other characters depicted are listed on IMDB. More bi names there.

As I read the words I felt his exasperation as a filmmaker. He hadn't done the minimal legwork on Bi+ issues, like our representation in the media (a simple Tumblr search could have helped), I actually felt sorry for him as an artist and historian. If he had done the research he would have known that bi people already see ourselves as part of the struggle, we don't need to be told so on camera without mentioning bisexuality. We are not beards simply staying with our gay, or straight appearing, husbands to keep our housing. We are not objects of desire to be used as props to help the story line along. We are not allies of the LGBTIQA community, but full fledged members of the community.

Using those items especially as touch points to illustrate stories about us is demeaning and frankly ignorant. To use a slogan of the Bi+ movement, "Nothing About Us Without Us!" Next time, actually talk to a person of lived Bi+ experience to find out if something might be considered offensive. Like perhaps having 8 hours of LG( )T stories without mentioning the "B" word once.

I feel that this kind of miniseries is so important, in the words of Lani Ka'ahumanu, "Yes this LGBT mini-series “WHEN WE RISE” is a big deal AND there is no bisexual representation. The B is missing from this epic LGBT docu-drama. When LGBT people rose in San Francisco [and everywhere else], we rose together. Bisexuals worked shoulder to shoulder with Cleve Jones, Ken Jones, Roma Guy and Cecilia Chung whose lives are featured. This is not to take away from their incredible contributions; this is to point out what might not be noticed in the excitement of watching “When We Rise”. Indeed, this is not a zero-sum game, we can honor those depicted in When We Rise, and mourn the poor Bi+ representation

My hope is that we as a community can rise above the bi erasure to bring our stories out and really be a force for change in the larger queer community. To use a slogan from the fight against the Briggs Initiative, "Come out! Come out! Wherever you are!" If you see poor representation in film and media, send your thoughts to GLADD and report an incident. Something that I suggested to those reading Cleve's Facebook thread was The GLBT Historical Society's oral history program for those elders who would love to have their stories heard. Also if you don't have those stories yet, become an oral historian through their program and find those stories of our Bi+ elders and leaders to document our rising with the LGBTIQA community.

Let's not let a wide brush of a historical miniseries deter us from telling our stories, let's bring them out into the sunshine and let the world know that we were there and we are here as vital members of the LGBTIQA community not allies like Black painted Lady Gagaduring the series, a prime place to say the word bisexual when pitching her as a speaker at the National Equality March yet nobody said the word once during the entire show.

I assume the big bisexual representation that we were all promised was her file footage speech to the National Equality March that almost never happened because according to Cynthia Connors fromNYABN* ( "the March Committee which was steadfastly refusing to allow Bisexuals to "officially" participate finally gave in" and that BiNet hadPenelope Williams, a Dominican American bisexual and immigration right activist introduce Gaga on stage for her now famous"ARE YOU LISTENING!!" speech.

The week has passed, we are now in a post When We Rise world, where ratings are key in seeing anything like this spring up again. This is the time to bring our stories out and write them all down. If you have any remembrances that you would like to write for the Bay Area Bisexual Network blog, please do not hesitate to let me know through either director@bayareabisexualnetwork.org , Facebook or Twitter, or post your own remembrances of Bi+ history through the hashtag #BiHistory on twitter and add a mention of@BABN.

---------Martin Rawlings-Fein is a bisexual trans man, a devoted husband and father and volunteers as a co-director of the Bay Area Bisexual Network.

*Update: "according to Cynthia Connors from BiNet USA" is incorrect as Cynthia is the technical admin from NYABN (the New York Area Bisexual Network) not BiNet USA. Giving Credit where credit is due.

BABN

Our mission is to develop a healthy, vibrant, multicultural bisexual community in the San Francisco Bay Area and to promote better understanding of bisexual lives and issues within the larger lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) community and the public.

Our Informational Blog Recently Made Number 38 on the Top 50 Bisexual ​Blogs!